The
defendant, Douglas Arthur Vincent, appeals his Sequatchie
County Circuit Court guilty-pleaded conviction of rape,
claiming only that the trial court erred by imposing the
maximum available sentence. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Tenn.
R. App. P. 3; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed

B.
Jeffrey Harmon, District Public Defender, for the appellant,
Douglas Arthur Vincent.

James
Curwood Witt, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in
which John Everett Williams and Timothy L. Easter, JJ.,
joined.

OPINION

JAMES
CURWOOD WITT, JR., JUDGE

Originally
charged with one count each of the aggravated rape, incest,
and aggravated sexual battery of his adult daughter, D.V.,
[1] the
defendant pleaded guilty to a single count of the lesser
included offense of rape as a Range II offender, with the
length of service of the sentence to be determined by the
trial court following a sentencing hearing. The State
summarized the facts of the offense at the guilty plea
submission hearing:

[I]f this matter came to trial, the State would be calling
Keith Herron, who is now with [the] Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation ["TBI"] as its primary law
enforcement witness, although other officers did work on
this. The State would be showing that on April 14, 2015, in
Sequatchie County officers were dispatched to . . . meet with
the victim . . . [on an] allegation of a sexual assault that
had occurred in the Deer Head community . . . . The victim
was taken to the sheriff's department, or followed the
officers to the sheriff's department. She did make a
statement to law enforcement that her biological father, [the
defendant], had sexually penetrated her by force . . . .

From there the victim was taken to the Rape Crisis Center in
Chattanooga. She was examined by . . . Bonnie Kidd[, who]
would testify that she has been through the appropriate
training, that she is a licensed nurse in the State of
Tennessee, [and] has also received specialized training in
forensic nursing. She examined the victim in this case. She
would testify that [the victim] suffered from bruising in the
vaginal area. Also that there was evidence of the
[p]etechiae, which [are] broken blood capillaries in the
vagina. Nurse Kidd would testify that this indicates that . .
. [the victim's] vagina was not ready for sexual
intercourse and that . . . these findings are consistent with
the victim being forcibly raped. She also prepared a rape
kit. She took swabs from the victim. Collected clothing et
cetera. That she placed those [items] into evidence at the
Rape Crisis Center. . . . Agent Herron would testify that he
went by the Rape Crisis Center several days later, picked up
the rape kit, and submitted it to the [TBI] along with . . .
buccal swabs from the victim as well as from the defendant.

TBI Agent Gregory Foster would testify that he is a forensic
scientist with the [TBI], has testified as an expert, and
would be qualified to testify as an expert witness in the
area of forensic biology. He would testify that - that on
anal swabs, vaginal swabs, and also the underwear from the
victim that sperm, that the DNA would identify as coming from
the [d]efendant . . . were found.

The victim would testify that . . . she was with her father
on that particular night. That, at the preliminary hearing
she stated that he did stuff that no father should do to his
child. She went on to describe that [the defendant] without
her consent sexually penetrated her, and that this occurred
in Sequatchie County.

She would also testify that [the defendant] was her
biological father, and that she had been taken by her mother,
I believe, to Texas, [and] had a very limited relationship
with him for a number of years. She's approximately 22
years of age when this happened. That she had come to
Sequatchie County partly in the hope of having a relationship
...

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